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The Aga Khan Case was an 1866 court decision in the High Court of Bombay by Justice Sir Joseph Arnould that established the authority of the first Aga Khan, Hasan Ali Shah, as the head of the Bombay Khoja community.〔Purohit, Teena (2001). The Aga Khan Case: Religion and Identity in Colonial India, 4〕 The case was officially a property dispute between a subset of dissident leaders of the Bombay Khojas and the Aga Khan, a Persian nobleman who had arrived in Bombay in 1846 and was regarded by his followers, including most Khojas, as their rightful leader and the 46th imam of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims.〔Hirji, Zulfikar (2011). The Socio-Legal Formation of the Nizari Ismailis of East Africa, 1800 1950 in A Modern History of the Ismailis, ed. Daftary, Fahrad, 135〕 The dissidents rejected the Aga Khan’s claim on authority by arguing that he was not a Khoja and that the Khojas had always been Sunni Muslims.〔Asani, Ali (2011). From Satpanthi to Ismaili Muslim: The Articulation of Ismaili Khoja Identity in South Asia in A Modern History of the Ismailis, ed. Daftary, Fahrad, 106〕 As part of adjudicating the dispute, Arnould undertook an extensive examination of the religious background of the Khoja caste. After a 25-day trial, which included testimony from the Aga Khan and a review of numerous documents,〔Purohit, Teena (2012). The Aga Khan Case: Religion and Identity in Colonial India, 5〕 Arnould found in favor of the Aga Khan, ruling that the Khojas were Shia Ismailis and that the Aga Khan was their rightful leader.〔Hirji, Zulfikar (2011). The Socio-Legal Formation of the Nizari Ismailis of East Africa, 1800 1950 in A Modern History of the Ismailis, ed. Daftary, Fahrad, 135〕 ==Background== In 1847, an inheritance dispute between two Khoja brothers led to the first legal dispute between a group of Khoja leaders and the Aga Khan, with the parties asserting that the dispute should be decided by caste custom and Quranic law, respectively. Though the judge, Sir Erskine Perry, decided the case in favor of the Khoja leaders, his findings included the assertion that the Khojas were a “Muhammedian” group (one with primarily Hindu practices, according to Perry), and that the 14th century Ismaili da'i, Pir Sadruddin, had converted the Khojas to Islam.〔Purohit, Teena (2012). The Aga Khan Case: Religion and Identity in Colonial India, 27〕 By 1851, the Bombay Khoja community was divided into two camps: a minority that rejected the Aga Khan’s authority and called for self-governance, and the majority that had been followers of the Aga Khan even before his arrival in India. After years of disagreements between the two sides—which were heightened when the Aga Khan asked Khojas to sign a document in 1861 prescribing the beliefs of the Nizaris, including loyalty to him〔Daftary, Farhad (1998). A Short History of the Ismailis, 198〕—the dissident faction brought a case against the Aga Khan in 1866, seeking to overturn his claim as the community’s leader.〔Asani, Ali (2011). From Satpanthi to Ismaili Muslim: The Articulation of Ismaili Khoja Identity in South Asia in A Modern History of the Ismailis, ed. Daftary, Fahrad, 106〕 In terms of legal and political context, the Aga Khan case came between two important events in the history of British India: the Rebellion of 1857 and the resulting Government of India Act, which led to the codification of the legal systems of the Bengal, Madras, and Bombay presidencies, and the first Indian census in 1871, which saw the formalization of religious and caste identities as categories of classification.〔Purohit, Teena (2012). The Aga Khan Case: Religion and Identity in Colonial India, 36〕 Amid this context, Arnould asserted that the case hung on the question of the “original religion” of the Khojas, as this would determine their identity and thus their rightful leader. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aga Khan case」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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